Track World Championships: Hayter defends Omnium crown, Kopecky and Bossuyt win women's Madison

Hayter defends Omnium world title in final lap sprint

Ethan Hayter (Great Britain) won the Men's Omnium on Saturday at the 2022 UCI Track World Championships at the Saint Quentin en Yvelines velodrome to successfully defend his 2021 title. On the last lap of the final event, Benjamin Thomas (France) earned the silver medal, while Aaron Gate (New Zeland) hung on to a podium spot with bronze. 

Gate took the early lead in the Omnium with a victory in the Scratch race. Shunsuke Imamura (Japan) was second and Kelland O’Brien (Australia) took third just ahead of Hayter. 

In the Tempo Race, J.E. Arango Carvajal (Colombia) took a lap on the field early in the race to earn 23 points. With eight laps to go, Imamura charged to the lead and held on with 41 points to take the win. Hayter finished in second place with 30 points, while Gate was third with 24 points.

Elia Viviani (Italy) held tough in the Elimination race until he ran out of gas in the final foursome on the track. Canadian Dylan Bibic was next to fade to take the third place slot. 

It came down to a sprint between 2017 Omnium World Champion Thomas Benjamin of France and Hayter, the reigning world champion. To the delight of the home crowd, Benjamin came around Hayter with half a lap to go to take the Elimination race. However, the points for second place put Hayter in the Omnium lead.

The last sprint in the Points Race was the decisive moment for the Omnium title. Hayter held a nine-point margin over Gate as the peloton charged across the final two laps. From the back of the peloton, Thomas was charging on a solo attack to lap the field and caught the back of the peloton in the closing metres to gain 20 points, which boosted him into the silver medal position. Hayter’s second-place finish, along with top points in three sprints, gave him enough to hold the Omnium title.

Women's Madison

Kopecky and Bossuyt hold off French duo to win Women's Madison

Lotte Kopecky and Shari Bossuyt secured the gold medal for Belgium in the Women’s Madison on Saturday. Clara Copponi and Valentine Fortin of France missed the top spot by one point and settled for the silver. Denmark’s Amalie Dideriksen and Julie Leth finished third.

The Belgian pair were the only team to lap the field and used the tactical late move to soar even with France. It was the second Madison world title for Kopecky, who won the first-ever women's event in 2017.

Belgium had not scored any points through the majority of the race, so Bossuyt attacked with 38 laps to go and then throwing Kopecky into action three laps later. France launched a counter-attack in the chase. Belgium took the next sprint to get on the board. Leading with 20 points, France continued to lead the chase of Belgium with under 30 laps to go.

Belgium then went equal in points with France as Kopecky caught the back of the peloton and by 18 to go had gone up seven points over France. Australia trailed another six points back for third.

With one sprint remaining, France trailed Belgium for the gold by five points. Denmark launched an attack to lap the field with only seven laps to go. New Zealand and Great Britain were then involved in a big crash with two laps to go, Michaela Drummond of New Zealand moving up the track and into Laura Kenny.

At the end, the home crowd was disappointed as France finished one point behind Belgium. 

On the early laps, some of the lights went out on the back side of the track, but it did not impede Italy and France from taking the early lead. Making a move on the outside was Georgia Baker taking five points for Australia. 

Then the race was neutralised with 110 to go for organisers to sort out the issue with the lights. Several riders had heavy falls on that back corner, none serious, including Mia Griffin of Ireland. All riders were taken off the course.

After a 10-minute delay, racing resumed, Canada moved to the front, but when the bell rang for the second sprint, Laura Kenney got the five points for Great Britain, coming around the top of riders from Denmark and the United States.

Each time one of the French riders moved to the front, the crowd gave a resounding roar. Fortin rewarded the crowd with top points on the third bell, putting France into a tie with Australia for the lead.

The second half of the race continued with the four strongest teams in control at the front - Great Britain, Australia, Germany and Denmark - but no one got away until Belgium.

Women's 500m Time Trial

Hometown favourite Kouame wins women's 500m Time Trial

France’s Taky Marie Divine Kouame surprised the German powerhouse Emma Hinze and won the women’s 500-metre Time Trial at the 2022 UCI World Championships in Paris on Saturday. She was the only woman under 33 seconds en route to securing her world title.

Emma Hinze (Germany), who set the best time in qualifying, took the silver medal. Yufang Guo (China), who was seventh best in qualifying, blasted around with the third best time and earned the bronze medal.

Kouame had a huge start in the final, looking for a medal at her home track in Paris with the crowd filling the velodrome with raucous applause and cheering. She set the best time of the day, 32.835, with only the triple World Champion to take the course. Hinze never made a significant move and finished .216 back.

Women's Individual Pursuit

Franziska Brausse (Germany) won the women’s individual pursuit at the 2022 UCI Track World Championships in a time of 3:19.427. Bryony Botha (New Zealand) secured the silver. The battle for bronze was taken by Jose Knight (Great Britain), who powered across the final 1,000 metres to edge out Mieke Kroger (Germany).

Just like the qualifying round, Brausse put down the best time ahead of Botha. In the final round she put time into Botha straightaway in the opening 1,000 metres. While Botha looked to be gaining some time in the middle section of the race, Brausse hit another gear in the final 250 metres to take the world championship victory. The German succeeded her teammate Lisa Brennauer for the rainbow jersey. 

A third year was the charm for Brausse at the Worlds in the individual pursuit, as she took the bronze medal in 2020 and the silver in 2021. She adds her first individual world title 2021 world title she won with her German teammates in the women's Team Pursuit last year in Roubaix and the Team Pursuit gold at the Tokyo Olympic Games.